mud/laundry room?

[linda/IL]

We have a combination laundry room, mud room and pantry which is actually kind of a hall.  Not very big and it is the most cluttered in our house.  Our basement is not really great and we use it for hanging up heavier farm coats and boots but the light weight jackets and tennis shoes up here.  along with hampers (3-one for every day clothes, one for damp towels, one for dirty farm clothes) makes this place a magnet for dumping everything that doesn't have a definite home. 

Any suggestions and does anyone else have a place like this or are we, well, slobs.

[turkey feather]

I believe there are a lot more of these spaces than you think. Ours is smaller than you describe with cabinets over the washer and dryer.  There are hooks behind the door that hold jackets. My problem is the tops of the washer and dryer which never seems to be completely cleared off. It also holds a small basket for DH dirtest clothes ready for the washer. It is an easy place to drop things.

[Suey73]

With the move I lost my mudroom/laundry  in the basement.   There was just not a good solution for the laundry and very dirty farm clothes in the big house without spending HUGE $$ on a house remodel.  The only thought we had was to use the attached garage for mudroom and laundry.    We love the attached garage.  The  washer and dryer are behind bifold doors in the kitchen.   Unfortunately,  you have to walk all the way through the  kitchen to get there.    We are still trying to come up with the perfect system.  Right now,  he takes  off his dirty farm clothes in the basement.   When there is a load or it has been around a week I give him a laundry basket and ask him to bring them up.   My fear of mice... is why I ask him to bring them up.   So far,  they aren't moving into the basement.   

[Kay/NC]

Different solutions, depending upon which house.  

Little house in Virginia, we had resituated laundry from basement to enclosed back porch for Jenna when she moved in here.  Easier to manage laundry on one level.  Mike tends to come in the back sunroom door, up seven steps to the porch, and undress right into washer there.  

I have a single dresser out there, with clothes enough for a couple of days, and do laundry daily here, so things rarely have to be carried to the bedroom storage area.  His coats and boots stay down by the sunroom door.  I keep a chair for him to sit to shuck them off.  

Pantry here is combination of OXO containers and small appliances on traditional pantry closet shelves.  Small vintage cabinet near stove has bottles, cans, jars.  

In NC, pantry is a long ( about 25 feet) dead end hallway, with wire shelving down one side and at the dead end, floor to ceiling, which is at least ten feet high. Right inside to right of side door, where I park to unload groceries.  Very convenient.  Refrigerator is up two shallow sreps just inside kitchen to the left.  Only food that has to be carried, through kitchen, is deep freezer stuff. 

Mike comes in back, rough room with woodstove.  Has a rocker to sit by that and shuck off boots, coats, his damp stuff hangs over chaor back to dry by the fire.  We undress in bath/ laundry combination room, with wardrobe storage for his stuff, chest o'drawers for mine.  

General rule for me is no stairs whenever possible, especially carrying loads, with these knees.  We have a step up or down here and there, but that is about it.  Second rule is to store things as close as possible to point of use.   Everyday clothing, pantry items, spices, utensils, etc.  

I am just lazy, I guess, but saving steps always appeals to me.  

Other things that occur to me are that with it being just us two now, we can undress in places we used to stay clothed in ( like this laundry porch, which has windows visible from the den).   

Outerwear and boots never come but so far inside, except for the occasional trip through the wash. 

[linda/IL]

Yours sounds a lot like mine, Kay, but no dresser.  Have a cheap buffet w/doors that our old microwave sits on there too.

Store the crock pots in it and the bread machine.  The top of it is a magnet for "stuff".  Also have a deep, deep over the stairs closet in there that I store big Tupperware & canning stuff.  Problem with that is I need the step stool to put things away in it (have to stack those containers) and sometimes they get parked on that buffet thing until I get time. 

Really need to put things away immediately.  "a place for everything, everything in it's place" and need to purge those things I don't use.  Wish my basement was drier so I could store canning pots there but it's not.  Next year I should do your organizational site, Kay.

Suey, not sure I quite get your laundry deal but I would love to have an attached garage.  Fought for one when we added the garage/shop we have but lost out.  Farm won.

[turkey feather]

I think we all try to work efficiently something I picked up in Home Ec class.  I gained a huge amount of practical info in those classes. We are hampered by the layout of our homes of course. I cleaned my large pantry this summer and that has helped and I am working on the cabinets too. If that job is not done often it is amazing what can be found. I use Rada knives and needed a new ones badly but had trouble finding a source when I needed it. Then bought a few and yesterday found five new ones. DH says I won't be able to wear all those our.

[Kay/NC]

Linda, you mention the declutter challenge.  You really can join it at any time.  It is nice to be on the same page and date of the calendars as everyone else, but I got left behind a bit when we got into hay in May.  

Still, four months of daily fifteen minute tasks did a lot for me.  You can sign up, which lets you print this year's calendar pages.  i did that and put them in a binder, of course.  I was able to skip some days that I had already managed well enough before the challenge. Others, than our lifestyle of farming really were quite different. 

I honestly would recommend  that you at least print the calendars, start following  EXACTLY what the kitchen and pantry storage parts say, as you can find the time.  Where people burned out was where they did way more than that day's task.  It really is often just one drawer or shelf that day. 

Another suggestion I will throw out is to start now reorganizing office processes and practices, so you start off 2016 on the right foot.  My biggest issues arise when I try to swap horses in midstream...doing things from the year's beginning is just best for me.

I got all of the farm's waste management records computerized this year, which saved us about 2.5 days of miserable handwritten work.  I need to look at what else we need to tweak.  

When the other people were doing some of their calendar pages that I cluldn't relate to, I would substitute a farm chore that day...this has managed to get Mike's old shop in Virginia largely cleaned out of decades of junk.  We got both sides of another shed done, finding all those windows for my greenhouse, and a bunch of neat junk pieces for projects down the road.  

The main benefit is that participating has made me more conscious of what I buy and why.  It has honed my skills at organizing in general, which never hurts.  You get LOTS of good ideas from others sharing their solutions.

 Hope you review 2015's pages, and either start now, or get ready for 2016.  It is well worth doing...look for 365 Day Declutter Challenge.  

[manureseller]

Pintrest of HGTV sites can really hep with small areas and organization.  I'm taking so ideas and putting them into our new home design and hoping it all works out.  😄   

Kay, I think I'm going to sign up for that home declutter thing and start it as we are moving in.  Maybe it'll help me cut down on crap and keep the house the way we want it too. 

[Kay/NC]

I thiould still join the365 Day Declutter Challenge, and print out all the2015 monthly calendars for reference on your moving in decisions.  She is alreadt starting to talk about the 2016 challenge. 

It is fun to join and chat with the group.  Lots of encouragement and ideas.  Some did nkt apply to my life, and there are lots of things farms deal with that most people don't.  Still, the group leader does a great job of posting articles and photos that help you wrap your head around topics.  

You have a wonderful opportunity, as Suey just did, to refine your possessions into a new home.  Enjoy!